Miracle
by Blueberry Momoko
Summary: "Taiki, whatever happened to miracles?" "Nothing, Nicko. You've just got to look for them."
1. Miracle Prologue: Miracles

Miracle

A/N: Hey guys! Hopefully, you've seen that I've updated 'High School Never Ends'. Sorry it took so long, but I was busy this summer and I've was nervous about freshman year, as you saw. I know, excuses, excuses. Well, this idea, if you're wondering this idea was prompted by the fact of the thought of the citizens finding out about Kiryu's Dark Signer past, added to the fact that Nicko's growing up… need I say more? He would want to escape to protect them, don't you think? So he does, but the Neo Domino government takes them away from him, so Rua and Ruka's parents take them in. This story is how Nicko deals with this by joining a glee club. That and I just love Nicko. This is in her point of view. Anyway, on with the story!

Thunderous applause wrapped around my teammates and I. I couldn't believe just over a year ago, I was in Satisfaction Town, fearing for my brother's lives, as well as my own. I looked out among the crowd to see Kiryu-san applauding rapidly and West on his feet, screaming his lungs out.

My team, Atarashii Hoko, won the Neo Domino Show Choir Regionals with our set 'An Ordinary Miracle' from the second 'Bells of Notre Dame', 'Miracles Happen' by Myra, and the 'Miracles' mashup by Norwegian Recycling .

I jumped in to Taiki's arms, smiling with glee.


	2. Hope You Enjoy Hell

Miracle

A/N: Hey guys! What up? I know I already have two projects going, (one of which no one has really read, except Rose.) but I really wanted to start this one, just because. I'll need some song ideas for this one because it is about a glee club. Please make it PG-13, at least. Anyway, on with the story!

"Nicko-san?" a small voice piped up. I looked up from gazing out at the sunrise over the city to see Ruka-chan, my new sister, standing behind me.

"It's time to head off to school," she said softly, as if a quieter tone would bring back my voice. I had lost all powers of speech when Neo Domino said Kiryu-san wasn't fit to take care of West and I. That was almost three months ago. The parents of Yusei-san's youngest friends, Rua and Ruka, gladly took us in, but they were hardly ever home. I was grateful for the Kuniumi's taking us in all the same, though. I simply nodded, and then stood, bag in hand, and followed my brother and my new "siblings" out the door.

While the twins were great duelists, I had no skill with a deck whatsoever, so I was being sent to Domino High, which wasn't a far walk from Duel Academy and West's new school, Domino Elementary. My little brother bounded ahead of me, but behind the twins, excited for his first day at a new school. West seemed strangely unaffected by the sudden change in his life. Sure, the first couple of weeks, he cried a lot because he missed his Kiryu-niichan, but as we began to visit, he adjusted to his new life, which made me think of something my father used to say to me as a small child.

"If you can be calm when all around you is chaos, then you haven't fully understood the situation," he would always say to me with a wink, making me giggle. I smiled at the memory.

"We're here, Nicko-san!" Rua-kun called, snapping me out of my abstraction. I looked up at my new school and felt myself shrink to six inches tall. It was a huge, modern-style building like the pictures of Duel Academy Rua-kun and Ruka-chan showed me. There were tons of high-school age kids milling around. I gulped.

"You want us to go in with you?" Ruka asked me. I silently shook my head.

"You sure?" she said. This time, I nodded.

"Okay, your call," she said, shrugging her thin shoulders.

West ran up to me and hugged me tightly. "Bye, Nicko-neechan! Have a good day!" he said brightly before running off to start his first day of third grade. I smiled, admiring his energy.

"Bye, Nicko-san!" the twins called in unison as they walked away, waving. I waved back, and then started up the steps, my heart beating wildly.

At the top of the flight, several groups of people stared at me, I was left alone. That is, until someone walked right into me.

"Ow!" I said, speaking for the first time in three months. My voice sounded strange in my ears, hoarse and rough, which made sense, since I hadn't spoken in months.

"I'm sorry!" a male voice said. I looked up to see a boy with black hair and green pleading eyes gazing down at me.

I rubbed my forehead. "It's okay," I managed to say before clearing my throat.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, touching my arm. 'He's awfully forward,' I thought as I drew away, flushing bright red.

"I'm fine," I said, clearing my throat again.

"Are you sure? It sounds like you're losing your voice or something," he said.

'You have no idea,' I thought. "I'm _fine_," I insisted, pulling my arm away. "Do you know where I can get my schedule?" I asked him pointedly.

"Depends," he said casually, "You got a name and an age?"

I blinked, again stunned by his directness. Finally, I said, "Kobayashi Nicko. I'm fourteen."

The boy smiled. "Then you would be looking for me. The name's Zenjirou Taiki. Our French teacher elected me to show you around your first day," he said, offering me a blue slip of paper.

"_Our_ French teacher?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and taking it. Sure enough, I had French as my last period. I was confused. I was pretty sure that English was required as a foreign language in _all_ of Japan, not just the mother-country.

"Usually most kids are forced to take English as their foreign language, but people like you and me are allowed to take French, in our case," he explained, obviously ignoring me and ushering me into the school.

"What do you mean people like you and me, Zenjirou-san?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes for a moment and I was afraid I had offended him. "Please," he said, "call me Taiki. By that, I mean that Sota-sensei made sure that the principal understood that you already spoke English so you could be put into a more challenging class. You know, to improve your learning experience and all that jazz," he continued.

I glanced at my schedule to see the teacher's name, just to be sure. "So… Sota-sensei has that kind of sway?" I asked.

"Just over the bilingual students and their needs," he explained.

"How many bilingual students are there?" I inquired.

"Including you and me, just twelve," Taiki-san replied.

"_Twelve?_ Out of a school of thousands?" I said.

"Yeah, most of their parents are ambassadors or missionaries. My dad falls into the first category, he's from England, and so he taught me from a young age. My mom's from here and she taught me Japanese at the same time as my father taught me English," he said. "What about you?"

"Um," I stuttered, "my mom was from America, and my dad was from here. My parents taught me like your parents taught you." I frowned, knowing I was beginning to tread shaky ground. "My mom died when my little brother was two and I was eight and my dad died when I was twelve and West was six, so I had to teach West and the man who used to look after us, Kiryu-san."

"Oh," Taiki-san said. "I'm so sorry, Kobayashi-san."

I looked up, again a little stunned, but this time by the sincerity in his voice. "I know," I said, looking back down. "I am, too." It suddenly dawned on me I had spoken more to this boy in the past five minutes than I had to the twins or my own _brother_ since coming to Neo Domino.

"So… Sota-sensei must be really powerful to get my schedule changed, right?" I asked again, eager to change the subject.

"Not really," Taiki-san answered, surprising me. "Beyond his classes, the staff pretty much considers Sota-sensei pretty much a joke."

"Why?" I asked. Why would such a seemingly powerful man be considered a joke?

Before Taiki-san could reply, we heard a girl's voice call out, "Hey, Taiki!" We turned to see two girls in baggy blue, white and gold pants and jackets, their hair tightly pulled back in to twin ponytails. On the right, it said "Color Guard".

"Sachi, Botan," Taiki-san said coldly.

"Is this the new girl?" the black-haired girl, the one who had spoken, asked. I could definitely tell she was being careful with her words and inflection.

"Yes," he replied icily. "This is Kobayashi Nicko; she's going to be in our French class."

"Hey, Taiki, what's- oh, the Witches of the East are back," someone snarled, and a black girl come up on the other side of me. She glanced across me at Taiki-san. "Want me to do anything?" she asked.

"No," he said, sighing through his nose, which I now noticed was sprayed with freckles. "It's not worth it," he continued before turning smoothly on his heel. "Come on, Maki, Kobayashi-san."

The girl gave them one more look before following Taiki. "You coming, new girl?" she asked me. I nodded, running after her.

"Who was that?" I asked, coughing again from my hoarseness.

"You okay?" she said, looking back at me and pushing back the gray fedora she wore on her head.

"She's fine," Taiki-san replied, a mischievous glint back in his eyes. I glared at him. The black girl stopped me at the door that I guessed lead to our first class.

She turned to me and said, "My name's Manabe Maki. You can just call me Maki. What about you?"

"Uh, Kobayashi Nicko," I replied, bowing to her. "Are you a friend of Taiki-san's?"

"One of the best!" they chorused, making me grin.

As we took out seats, I asked hesitantly, "What was the deal with those two girls in the hallway?"

"Sachi and Botan?" Taiki-san asked, raising an eyebrow. He and Maki-san turned to each other and began talking rapidly.

"Should we tell her?" Maki-san asked.

"About Atarashii Hoko?" he replied. In the back of my mind, I translated that to mean 'New Directions' in Japanese.

"No, about us joining the Kenyan Embassy," Maki-san said sarcastically. "Of _course_ about Atarashii Hoko!"

Taiki-san thought about this for a bit. "I think we should let Sota-sensei tell her," he finally said.

"Tell me what?" I inquired. They both looked at me and nodded, opening their mouths at the same time to speak.

Then, a short, stocky man I presumed to be the teacher breezed in (if a man like that could be said to breeze.) and said, "All right, everybody quiet. We need to start class."

Taiki-san sighed, then said, "We'll let Sota-sensei tell you."

"Moshi, moshi, Taiki!" a feminine voice called from our French period. "Is that the new girl?"

'How friendly,' I thought rather sarcastically, but with a nice smile.

"Kenji, we say 'bonjour' in this class, remember?" an adult male voice called out from inside the classroom. I figured this was Sota-sensei.

"Sure, sumimasen, Sota-sensei." A boy with a clean face and brown hair swept back from his forehead came to the door.

"Bonjour, Kenji," Taiki-san said in a manner that sounded as if he knew the boy very personally. "To answer your question, yes, this is Kobayashi Nicko."

"Yeah, isn't she cute?" Maki-san teased, pinching my cheek. I blushed.

"Oh, Maki, you know I'm not like that," he said, waving a hand before leaning over to kiss the air beside Maki-san's cheek. I, however, stood dumbfounded. This Kenji boy was the speaker.

He turned to me and said, "Mukuro Kenji, Kobayashi-san."

I jumped, oddly afraid that he had caught me staring openly at him. "I-it's a pleasure to meet you, M-Mukuro-san," I managed to stutter, bowing so he wouldn't see my face darken, which was pretty hard to do, considering I grew up in desert towns.

Mukuro-san looked at Taiki-san and said, almost skeptically, "I like her. She's sweet. Let's hope this place doesn't warp her like it did Sachi and Botan." I blinked, rising up from my bow.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Welcome to high school, Kobayashi-san," he said. "I hope you enjoy hell."

"Kenji! Don't scare her!" Taiki-san scolded.

"The truth is scary, Taiki," Kenji said, turning on his heel and reentering the classroom.

"Don't mind him. Kenji's a bit of a cynic," Taiki-san apologized.

"Are you guys coming in or am I going to have to make you go get tardy slips the first day back?" a man with warm brown eyes and curly brown hair said, coming to the doorway.

"No, Sota-sensei," the boy next to me replied. "Come on, Kobayashi-san," he said, gesturing with his head to come inside.

At first, when Taiki-san told me that there were only twelve kids who spoke English in the school, I was struck dumb. Now, though, I was completely blown away by how few people that actually was. There were about twenty desks empty and the others were filled sporadically. Maki-san and Mukuro-san were sitting on the left side of the room towards the middle, and they waved us over to two empty desks beside them.

"What did Mukuro-san mean by 'Not like that'?" I whispered to Maki-san as I took a seat behind her.

"Yeah, once we get out of school, Kenji's going to Shinjuku," she replied.

"Oh," was all I said. I should've figured, but, _no_, I had to go ask.

I looked around, if only to escape my own thoughts. Other than the three people I had met, there was girl that wore dark makeup and sharp accessories talking to a boy with messy black hair, a boy with a shaved head in the corner, sulking, another black kid, like Maki-san, but this time a boy, twirling a basketball on his finger, a pretty blonde girl who looked strangely like she wanted to disappear, a boy with glasses sitting in a wheelchair behind a table, and the two girls that Taiki-san confronted at the beginning of the day.

Then, the bell rang and Sota-sensei strode in and said, "Afternoon, guys!"

"Afternoon, Sota-sensei," we all replied flatly.

"Oh, come on, guys, don't be so glum. This year will be better," he said, obviously trying to inject his tone with a positive outlook.

'Better?' I thought, looking around at the doubtful faces.

"The sign-up sheet is almost filled for glee club," our teacher added.

"Yeah, by us," the boy in the wheelchair said.

"Even by those we didn't expect," the blonde girl added, glaring a hole in to the two color guard girls' backs.

"Hypocrites," Maki-san muttered.

"Look, guys, I'll be clear with you right now," Sato-sensei said, leaning on his palms on his desk. "The animosity you guys have toward each other will end at that door. Outside of class, I don't care how you settle it, as long as it doesn't break school policy," he looked at Maki-san when he said this, "but in this class, we're a family, like it or not. Get it?"

"Yes, Sota-sensei," the rest of the class replied sullenly.

"Good," he said.

A question nibbled at my consciousness and I raised my hand. "What's a glee club?" I asked.

Everyone turned to look at me, making me feel as if I was under microscope.

Sota-sensei grinned at me. "Boys and girls, this is your new classmate, for those of you who haven't met her yet, Kobayashi Nicko," he said, gesturing to me. He began to applaud and soon the rest of the class joined in. When they were done, he said, "Great question, Nicko-san. A glee club is a group of people who combine song, dance, and theatricality for review, according to our official rule book," Sato-sensei "explained". I stared blankly at him.

"We're like an acting troupe, but we only sing and dance for panel of judges," Maki-san clarified.

"Okay," I whispered, unsure of my feelings on the subject.

"Jeez, Sota-sensei, no wonder the other part of the school who doesn't care what we do doesn't join, they have no idea what we do," the blonde girl said with a tiny smile.

"Amen to that, Rika," Mukuro-san said and the rest of the class giggled.

"Now, I have a question for Kobayashi-san," the messy-haired boy said, raising a hand.

"What's that, Mahio?" Sota-sensei said, turning to the boy.

Mahio-san turned to me. "Where are you from?" he asked me. My face grew hot.

"I don't remember where I was born, we moved around a lot when I was a kid, but the place where I stayed the longest was a place out in the desert called Satisfaction Town," I said.

"Isn't that the place that was named after that dueling gang out in the Satellite Sector?" the wheelchair boy asked me.

"Yeah, didn't their leader go crazy or something? And when he was let out of the Facility, he went to that place to die?" the girl with the dark makeup asked.

"He also liberated the whole place. Got the title 'Shinigami', I heard. I don't think a truly crazy person could do that," Taiki-san said, looking back at me. I wondered if he knew by looking at my face that I knew who Kiryu-san was.

"Did you know him, Kobayashi-san?" Maki-san asked me.

I sunk down in to my chair. "You could say that," I murmured. With that, class began.

"Okay, so with all the original members, except maybe Raina, plus Sachi and Botan-," Taiki-san said, counting off his fingers as we left school.

"Traitors," Maki-san muttered.

"Who's Raina?" I asked.

Taiki-san sighed. "Raina was one of our strongest singers, but the idea of losing Regionals got to her last year, and she transferred to our rival school to join the drama department," he explained. That struck me as selfish of Raina-san, but I was in no place to judge.

"That still leaves one position open," Kenji-chan, as he allowed me to call him, said.

"Does it?" I asked, feigning innocence.

"Come on, Kobayashi-san, didn't you hear Sota-sensei tell us we need twelve people to even compete, much less go to Regionals?" Maki-san said.

I had. Sota-sensei went over the rules and regulations of glee club competitions once more with the others, to which most of them rolled their eyes good-naturedly.

"That means you need one more person to audition, right?" I asked, thinking back to two months before we had to leave home.

"What are you getting at, Kobayashi-san?" Kenji-chan said, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean," I said, "I'll audition for Atarashii Hoko."

"Really? You mean it?" Maki-san said. I nodded.

"Thank you so much, Kobayashi-san!" Kenji-chan exclaimed.

"You're welcome," I replied. I turned to them, my voice already feeling stronger.

"By the way, enough with this Kobayashi-san business. You can call me Nicko."


	3. Welcome and Hurting

Miracle

Author's Notes: Hey guys, it's Blue! Thanks to all my readers for reading 'High School Never Ends'! I really appreciate all the support. I'm always asking for ideas for anything, so feel free to send them in. Well, on with the story!

So that's how I joined a glee club, or show choir, as Maki-san prefers to call it. Or at least, volunteered to. I had to get past an audition stage first.

"You ready, Nicko-san?" Sota-sensei asked. We were all in the choir room, assembled on chairs that tiered up.

'No,' I remember thinking, but I ended up lying through my teeth, saying I was fine. Rika-san gave me a knowing look and a small smile, reminding me she had once been in my place. Boku-san, our accompanist, his fingers poised over the piano keys, looked at me expectantly, as well as the band, who had picked up their instruments.

"Um," I stuttered, flinching at it, how it sounded so base. "Do you know 'Born to Fly' by Sara Evans?" I asked. Boku-san nodded, leaning back on his hands and letting the band play.

I closed my eyes and thought of my mother, who would sing this song me as a child.

When I finished, the whole room was quiet, astounded looks on everyone's faces. My face fell.

"Was I really that bad?" I asked, fearing I had disappointed my new friends.

Instead of answering me, Maki-san bent down to say in Taiki-san's and Kenji-chan's ears, "We are _so_ going to win." Immediately, everyone burst in to cheers and applause. Even Rika and Norio, the shaved head boy, who were usually so sour, were smiling. I beamed brightly at Sota-sensei's next words.

"Nicko-san, welcome to Atarashii Hoko."

"You joined a what?" Kiryu-san asked.

"A glee club," I answered quietly, beginning to doubt my judgment. "Eleven other kids and I sing and dance for a panel of judges." Though he couldn't keep us, West and I were free to visit Kiryu-san as often as we wanted at the Poppo Time building, where he was staying with the rest of Team Satisfaction and their friend, Bruno.

"Do you have to audition?" Yusei-san asked me, eyebrows raised. Since the liberation of Satisfaction Town and our moving here, the guys' friendship had reestablished itself, as if, according to Crow-san, they had never grown apart in the first place. I had liked Crow-san from the start because he was so expressive and open, like a big kid, though he and Yusei-san were coming up on their twentieth birthdays. Atlas-san, as he liked me to call him, was more of an acquired taste for me, as he was more cold and unapproachable when I first met him.

"I already have," I answered. "With 'Born to Fly' by Sara Evans."

Yusei-san cocked his head. I giggled. It was odd to see Yusei-san confused.

"It's a song Kaa-san used to sing to us when we were little," West explained, looking up from a duel with Rua-san.

"Didn't you sing that song once for talent night at the tavern?" Kiryu-san asked.

"Yeah," I said, and then smirked, thinking. "Didn't you say I, oh, how did you put it, embarrass the crap out of you when I sang that?" I asked him in English.

His eyes grew wide, then he turned away and said, "Dammit, Nicko, I don't know what the hell you just said." I laughed as he mulled it over. It made me smile to see a grown man like Kiryu-san struggle with something as simple to me as English.

"Yeah," he said slowly in the language I had just addressed him in, "I guess I said that."

"Very good," I replied in our native tongue.

"You're mean," Yusei-san said incredulously. "I had no idea someone that sweet could be that mean," he said to Kiryu-san.

"So, when did you audition?" Kiryu-san asked me.

"Last Monday, when you were all busy," I replied. "It takes a while for the twins and West to get to the school, so my friends made me stay after school in the choir room to audition."

"She felt so bad that she didn't pick me up, she became a mute again," West joked.

"Watch it," I said, clamping my hand down on his head.

"So they liked you enough to let you join, huh?" a deep voice called from the living room.

"_Konnichi wa,_ Atlas-san," I called back, teasing.

"Actually," Ruka-chan said slyly, "it sounded like they received her with thunderous applause, the way that Taiki-san boy was raving about you." Then, just to me, she winked and mouthed, "He's cute."

I smirked and mouthed back, "So is Sly." She burned bright red and glared at me.

"I don't know why you hide it, Nicko-san. I've heard you sing when you're alone. You're really good," Rua-san said brightly. I had always liked both twins a lot, but for different reasons. Ruka-chan, I could identify with her, but Rua-san with his spastic nature made me smile. He was like an older version of West in my mind.

"Thanks, Rua-san," I mumbled.

"So how long are you going to be there?" Kiryu-san asked.

"It's after school in the choir room for an hour and a half, starting tomorrow," I replied. "I asked Sota-sensei if it was okay if the twins sat in and watched. He said it was alright. Apparently, West's school doesn't serve an age demographic old enough to compete and Duel Academy has no interest in starting a show choir," I explained.

West jumped up and hugged me. "I can't wait to meet Nicko-neechan's new friends!" he chirped.

I smiled and laid a hand on his head, more gently this time. "Yeah," I murmured. "Neither can I."

The next day, before club started, Maki-san pulled me in to a chair next to her, near Taiki-san and Kenji-chan, making me giggle. The twins and West hadn't arrived yet, so this bought me some time to explain my situation, I soon learned.

"So, your brothers and sister are coming to hang out?" Taiki-san asked me, startling me.

"Um, the youngest is my biological brother, West. The twins are my adoptive siblings, Rua-san and Ruka-chan," I explained.

Akeno-san, the boy in the wheelchair, turned his chair to us and said, "Rua-san and Ruka-chan, do you mean _Kuniumi_ Rua-san and Ruka-chan?"

I didn't see how Akeno-san knew this, much less how it was his business, but I articulated, "Yes, West and I have lived with them for about three months."

At their astonished faces, I said, "Whatever you may believe, social status doesn't define personality."

"Yeah, you guys," Taiki-san said. "We're friends with each other, a bunch of ambassadors' kids. You should know better than that. "

"Rua-san and Ruka-chan are just kids and want to be treated as such. Please do that for me and them. They're not just my new siblings, they're my friends," I pleaded. Everyone murmured apologies and said they would.

Taiki-san winked and smiled at me, saying, "See, Nicko-san, we've got your back." My heart rate raced and blood rushed to my face. I turned to Maki-san, who was smiling knowingly, and said, "Maki-san, do I look sick to you?"

"You're fine, girl," she assured me. "You're just fine." At that, Sota-sensei strode in, initiating the start of practice.

"Wait, Sota-sensei!" Sachi-san's voice called out, running in to the room, Botan-san right behind her.

"What are you doing here?" Rika-san snarled.

"Rika," Sota-sensei said warningly and Rika-san sunk back in to her chair, looking more annoyed than usual. He then turned to the other girls, smiling warmly, and said, "Welcome back, Sachi, Botan."

"Thanks, Sota-sensei," Sachi-san said softly. She and Botan-san proceeded to take seats as far away as possible from the rest of us. I felt a little sorry for them. Whatever they did, they obviously regretted it.

Unfortunately, it seemed as if the rest of the team didn't particularly care. Rika-san had dipped her head so that her hair hide her obviously furious face, Akeno-san's hands were gripped around the arms of his chair so tightly his knuckles were white, and Taiki-san's lips were pressed in to a hard, thin line. At that last thought, my heart rate went up again.

I looked over at Sachi-san and Botan-san to see that they head their pinky fingers hooked together, black lines tracing their faces.

"First of all, guys, welcome back," Sota-sensei said, trying to inject a positive mood in to the room. Then, he turned to me and said, "And welcome."

"Is that this week's theme?" Norio-san, the sour boy, asked with a small smile.

"Yep," our teacher declared. "Anybody got any ideas?" Everyone was quiet, thinking.

Then, Maki-san's voice, warm and rich, began to fill the room. "_Welcome to our family time, welcome to our brotherly time,"_ she sang.

Taiki-san's and Kenji-chan's voices joined hers. _"We're happy givin' and takin' to the friends we're makin', there's nothing we won't do!"_ they sang more loudly.

"_Welcome to our family time,"_ the rest of the club, even Sachi-san and Botan-san, began to sing, clapping their hands to a steady beat. _"Welcome to our happy-to-be time. This is our festival, you kniw and best of all, we're here to share it all!"_

"_Remembering love once departed,"_ Takara-san, the punk girl, sang.

"_Someone dear to your heart,"_ Norio-san sang, taking Rika-san's hand, making her blush and smile. When she smiled, she was actually a very beautiful girl.

"_Finding love,"_ Maki-san added, nudging me toward Taiki-san, who wasn't paying attention. I flushed darker than the blonde girl. What was she insinuating?

"_Planning a future," _Mahio-san, the boy who asked me where I was from, sang, casting a glance at Sota-sensei, who smiled.

"_Telling stories and laughing with friends,_" he finally sang along.

"_Precious moments you'll never forget!"_ they all chorused.

Suddenly, Taiki-san pushed an open music book in to my hands, full of sheet music, which Maki-san had been teaching me to read at lunch. It was the song we were singing, aptly named 'Welcome'. He pointed to where we were and I followed along with my finger.

"_This has to be the most beautiful, the most peaceful place I've ever been to. It's nothing like I've ever seen before," _I sang. I looked up at Taiki-san, who motioned at me to go on. I looked back down to the music and continued. _"When I think how far I've come I can't believe it, yet I see it. In them I see family; I see the way we used to be." _My eyes filled with tears and I found myself missing my life before this, as much as I liked my life now, with my friends. This _was_ the way we used to be.

There was dead silence for about three seconds and then everyone around me burst in to song, "_Welcome to our family time, welcome to our brotherly time! We're happy givin' and takin' to the friends we're makin', there's nothing we won't do! Welcome to our family time, welcome to our happy-to-be time! This is our festival, you know, and best of all-,"_ the song stalled again and Maki-san clapped Kenji-chan on the back.

Then in unison, we all sang, "_We're here to share it all!"_ We all finished the song laughing, me clutching on to Maki-san's arm. Then, as our laughter died off, another sound made its way through the room. It was applause, coming from the twins and West, standing in the doorway of the choir room.

"That was awesome!" Rua-san shouted, throwing his arms in to the air. Sota-sensei chuckled.

"Do you want to introduce us, Nicko-san?" he asked slyly.

"Oh!" I said, jumping up, as if something had burned me. "Guys, these are my friends and "siblings", Kuniumi Rua and Ruka," I said, gesturing to the twins. "And this," I continued, pulling West toward me, "is my little brother, West."

"Hi, everybody!" he chirped, waving slightly.

All the girls gasped and Takara-san cried, "Desu kawaii!"

"Well then," Sota-sensei pronounced, unwittingly bringing tears to my eyes, "welcome to the family."

About an hour later, when we were leaving the school, Kenji-chan put an arm around me, which was becoming less uncomfortable each time somebody did it in French. More often than not, it was Norio-san, who Taiki-san has told me had a reputation for being a bit of a player, as he called it.

"You were truly beautiful, Nicko-san. Never have I heard a soprano so sweet," he vowed, a hand over his chest.

"I wasn't-," I began, before Ruka-chan smacked a hand over my mouth.

"Yes," she said with certainty, "you were."

"Yeah, you might be even better than Raina, and that's saying something," Rika-san said.

"I wouldn't go that far," Taiki-san said suddenly.

I looked at the boy's stony profile and murmured, "Taiki-san?"

"Taiki, don't be rude. We get it, Raina hurt you, but don't bring Nicko-san down because of it," Rika-san chided.

"What-?" I started before being interrupted, this time by Maki-san.

"Girl," she said softly. "Don't push it. That's another story for another time."

"Okay," I whispered, looking back at Taiki-san, wondering what Raina-san could've possibly done to hurt him as badly as she did.


End file.
